


the truth of it all

by beingxwest



Category: Grand Hotel (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, I'm not kidding y'all, I'm probably going to write more but here is this, The Author Regrets Nothing, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, alternate universe - danny and alicia figure things out, alternate universe - javi and ingrid make better choices (that's later on but it is important), flash-forward at the end, follows the beach scene along until it doesn't, life at the riveria grand is wild, post episode 1.13, the riveria grand, there's a happy ending i swear, there's some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 04:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21385768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beingxwest/pseuds/beingxwest
Summary: that scene on the beach goes a little differently. the world changes. or, at least, the one at the Riveria Grand does. (post 1.13 au and fix-it fic) (title from "Hold On" by Bishop Briggs)
Relationships: Danny Garibaldi/Alicia Mendoza
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	the truth of it all

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coeur_d_amour](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coeur_d_amour/gifts).

> I hope you like this! I decided to write it as soon as I realized that the show had been cancelled, because I felt like there were so many things that weren't explored/ explained at the end. I hope you like it! Please let me know what you think! (Note: there's a flash forward at the end, you'll know it when you see it!) This begins with the scene at the beach but changes a little ways in. Disclaimer: the beginning part of the scene belongs to ABC. Thanks to cour_d_amour for the beta!

Alicia has loved this ocean for as long as she can remember.

It's steadiness has always called to her - no matter what happened, what went wrong, what would have to be done to fix it, the ocean has never changed. It was there before her mother died, and after, and then after she found out that she'd been lied to her entire life. The whole world seems to have shifted once again, just in the span of a few days - she has two brothers now, even though she doesn't feel like she can ever forgive her father for what he did. She doesn’t know what to make of Mr. and Mrs. P, who might have betrayed them most, but who've always done their best to help Javi and Alicia, especially since their mother died.

_ At least we know why, right? _ she thinks to herself. It's snarkier than she wants to be right now, digging in to the still-stinging ache of her world falling apart just enough that it rushes back to her. She shoves the thought away; that isn't what she wants to think about right now. Not ever, if she can help it, but she's pretty sure she'll have to deal with it eventually.

Not right now, at least. She can work through her emotional turmoil later.

Beside her, Danny is staring into the ocean with unseeing eyes. Alicia's got a pretty good idea of what he's thinking about - moments with his sister, probably the ones right before she left. Maybe his favorite memories of her before everything went sideways.

"It's so beautiful out here," she says, testing the water. Her statement is vague enough to just be a random musing. He doesn't have to respond if he doesn't want to. She doesn't want to pull him from his thoughts sooner than she has to, but the silence is making her nervous. She can't take much more of this walking on eggshells thing between them. 

After a few seconds, though, Danny replies, "Sky loved the beach."

Alicia turns her head just enough to see him out of the corner of her eye. He's rolled up his sleeves and left his suit jacket in his locker in the breakroom. She'd left her heels with Yoli before slipping outside after Danny, but he left his dress shoes on.

His head is somewhere else, clearly. Alicia won't say anything about it until he realizes that there's sand all over his shoes, and it'll just be to tell him how her father gets the sand off of his own loafers.

Thinking about her father isn't that much fun right now, either, so she stores that thought away with the others. Danny needs her right now. There's a reason he asked her to come with him.

_ Maybe it's not that he needs you _ , she reminds herself. She can't let herself think like this - coming up with ideas like this won't be good for her in the long-run, especially if Danny decides to up and leave. Or to stay, and not have anything to do with her. _Maybe he just didn't want to be alone. _

Danny turns towards Alicia a little bit. This time, as he talks about his sister, he doesn't have that faraway look in his eyes.

It's easy to feel like she's met Sky, this girl who died because of Alicia's horrible family drama, who's death was covered up. She was someone before what happened to her changed the way that things played out at the Riveria Grand.

She loved the beach. She loved Miami. Most of all, Alicia knows, she loved her brother.

Alicia remembers her mom telling her that people look for the familiar things in other people - things that make someone feel at home are usually what draws them to other people. She wonders if Danny was drawn to her for those things, or if it was just because she's a pretty girl who was always around.

She doesn't have the courage to ask. Even if she did, this wouldn't be the right time. She doesn't know if there will _ever_ be a right time.

Danny pulls the lighter out of his pocket, brushes his thumb over where his sister's name is engraved on it. Alicia wishes more than ever that there was a way to do a proper memorial service - flowers and people to say kind words and something that would allow Danny to properly grieve.

Somehow, Alicia doesn't think that Sky would want that anyway, even if things were different. The formality of it all just doesn't seem like her style.

"I love you," Danny whispers, talking to both the lighter and the ghost of his sister that it holds.

He stares at it for another few seconds. Takes a few steps forward. Extends his arm backward and throws it.

Alicia follows it with her eyes as it arcs upwards. She can't quite hear the splash of it landing in the water over the waves, but she imagines it. Feels Danny's final goodbye to his sister roll over her like a wave.

A gust of wind blows past them. It's stronger than the breeze that's been tugging on Alicia's hair and the bottom of her dress since she stepped outside. She steels herself against it even though it might actually knock her over. Stumbling into Danny like that is definitely not the way to go.

Danny chuckles under his breath, sticks a hand up in the air and waves. Face turned up, sun glinting off his hair like a halo, he looks like he's known this beach and this ocean and these waves his entire life.

Not bothering to chastise herself for staring, she shakes it off and steps forward to stand next to him. The water almost comes up to her bare feet. Part of her wants to run into it, fancy dress and carefully curled hair be damned, like she's a kid again.

They stand there for a few seconds. Let the salty sea air fill them up and let the sun warm them from the inside out.

Alicia finally works up the nerve to ask the question that's been bouncing around in her head since they worked out what happened to Sky. This may not be the right time, but it isn't like there's going to be a better one, is there?

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Go back to Illinois." His voice is carefully neutral as he responds, but Alicia knows him well enough to know what he thinks of that. After everything that's happened, she can't imagine him putting himself through that - everything is so different now. They're so different now.

Another beat goes by, and then Danny continues, "I mean, there's nothing keeping me here."

The words are technically true. That does not mean, however, that they don't go through her like a punch in the stomach. 

She's been hiding from how she feels about him for weeks. Pretending that she's still angry. That even if she isn't angry about him lying to her, she doesn't think it would work out between them. That he's certainly not been the only thing that makes her feel like she can breathe since everything started going crazy around her. 

Apparently, not even the too-organized and headstrong Alicia Mendoza can hide from her feelings forever. 

He turns to face her. It's her turn to keep her expression coolly neutral. Like the words _I don't want you to leave, I don't want to lose you, I'm still so in love with you it hurts _aren't in danger of tumbling out of her mouth. She nods a few times like she's processing what he said, but she probably looks more like a bobble head than anything else. 

"Right?"

She doesn't know what to say to that. Instead, she sets her jaw and makes up her mind. Reaches out and threads her fingers through his, holding on so tightly that she can feel her fingers turning white. Like she can convince him to stay if she holds on tight enough. 

The way that Danny makes her incapable of coming up with the right words is always a little jarring, but sometimes it's nice not to have to explain herself. They always seem to mess things up when they talk, don't they? 

Her feet move before she consciously decides to turn to face Danny. He's looking down at her like he's trying to see through her, like if he pays enough attention her thoughts will write themselves across her forehead. 

And then they're surging together, lips finding each other. They've stumbled to the side just enough that the waves are lapping over their feet. Neither of them notice. 

Alicia's hands find the side of Danny's face as one of his arms wraps around her back, pulling her closer, and they break apart to meet each other's eyes. 

They both nod to one another. Alicia can see the want in his eyes, feel it in the warmth of his palm pressed to the small of her back. 

Those aren't the things that make her lean up to kiss him again, though. It's the love in his eyes, in the way he brushes her hair out of her face, in the way that he waits to see if she wants to keep going. 

She's never been in love like this. Quite honestly, she didn't think it was possible. 

Another gust of wind, just like the one from a few minutes ago, blows by. Danny laughs into Alicia's mouth. 

"She would've liked you," he murmurs as he presses a feather-light kiss to her cheek. "I just know it." 

Alicia catches his lips with hers again, not sure what to say in response. She hopes so. Hopes that Sky would've approved of her, would've thought that she's good enough for Danny. 

When Alicia pulls back a minute later, she's come up with something. Honesty. "I really hope so." 

Danny kisses her again. Wraps both his arms tight around her waist and swings her off the ground. She slips her arms around his neck to hold on.

A laugh bubbles out of her throat. They're spinning on the beach, feet soaked and his shoes covered in sand and water, and all Alicia can feel is the sun and the water around them. 

That's what love is, then -- not just the happy, picture-perfect moments of her childhood that she remembers, not the way that her parents were only perfect for each other during the good times, but the times that you can find peace and happiness in each other when everything is falling apart. 

When Alicia walks into the hotel's annual gala a few years later to find Danny standing in the middle of the room, a single spotlight shining down on him and a microphone in his hand, it's Javi that's standing right behind her. It's Jason standing behind Danny, holding a tiny velvet box in one hand and a champagne flute in the other, a smile the size of Florida on his face. 

And it's that moment on the beach that Danny starts with. 

"That's when I knew I would spend the rest of my life with her," he says. "She made the worst week of my life into something so much better. And I hope I can do that for her, for the rest of our lives." 

She's not expecting him to sink down on one knee in front of all of those people like that, to take the box from Jason and open it up and it be her mother's wedding ring, but Javi squeezes her shoulder and steers her forward, stepping aside to stand with Jason and take pictures. 

The only part of this entire thing that's expected is when she says yes. Danny picks her up and spins her around, just like that day on the beach. 

They name their daughter Sky, and spend the rest of their lives proving that this kind of love really exists. Jason moves into the hotel and never leaves, just to help Alicia run it, and after Javi and Ingrid do the same, they manage to raise a child that's more like Alicia than either of them. 

Maybe their family didn't come together in the normal way, but it's theirs, and Alicia and Danny wouldn't change it for the world. 

Alicia's not sure if love could change the entire world over night, but that's what it did to her world, so it might be possible after all. 


End file.
